Maniolas

MANILA, Philippines – Bloomberg TV Philippines expects revenues to start blooming next year with half of the advertisements needed to recover investments for the country’s first 24-hour business channel already secured. In an interview following Bloomberg TV’s trade launch Wednesday night, MediaQuest Holdings Inc. president and chief executive officer Emmanuel Lorenzana said at least 10 advertisers from the fast-moving consumer goods and services sectors have already counted themselves in for the channel. “We need another 10. We need 20 for us to recover investments. But it looks like the channel is easy to sell to advertisers because the brand itself is good,” Lorenzana said. He said a little over P200 million has already been invested for the development of Bloomberg TV Philippines to date. “Within a year’s time we can recover that because it’s a very good brand. Bloomberg is a very good brand because for one, the CEOs and officers watch it so that’s a big thing already. But we never intended this just for the CEOs, this is for everybody. Everybody who wants to get ahead in life through business,” he said. Bloomberg TV Philippines is a joint undertaking of Cignal TV Inc., the pay TV arm of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), MediaQuest and global business and financial news network Bloomberg TV. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 “It’s an international brand and it’s well known in the Philippines as well. It will make our job easier in introducing a new business channel,” Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – Dutch financial institution ING Bank sees a more robust capital market in the Philippines after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued the guidelines on the issuance of commercial papers. Consuelo Garcia, country manager of ING Bank in Manila, said in a statement the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the Securities Regulation Code (SRC) easing the rules on the issuance of debt papers is out.  The bank said the new amendments would entice more companies to raise funds in the domestic market, plug regulatory gaps, strengthen market and regulatory structures, and encourage global best practices. “The relaxation of the rules on commercial paper issuance, in particular, will widen the availability of instruments in the market and deepen the capital markets,” Garcia said.  Garcia chairs the Capital Markets Committee of the Bankers Association of the Philippines. She said the committee worked closely with the SEC and other industry organizations in coming up with amendments to the IRR that would be more responsive to current market conditions. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 She added the streamlining of the process for the issuance of commercial papers and corporate notes is expected to encourage more corporate issuers to raise funding from the capital markets instead of the bank market. Early this month, the SEC approved the new guidelines to enhancing the existing requirements including the ability of companies to raise funds in the domestic market. SEC chairperson Teresita Herbosa earlier said the new guidelines address regulatory Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – Net earnings of listed port operator Asian Terminals Inc. (ATI) rose eight percent in the first half of the year from a year ago amid higher revenues. ATI’s net income hit P1.005 billion in the first-half, up from P933 million a year ago. The higher net profit was achieved despite the challenging trade environment of slow import growth and reduced exports. The firm’s revenues rose nine percent to P4.29 billion in the first six months of the year from last year’s P3.92 billion. The latest revenue result was boosted largely by higher international containerized volume in Batangas. Volume handled by the Batangas Container Terminal surged by more than 340 percent to 70,000 twenty-foot equivalent units from January to June period compared with last year’s level as it served Calabarzon (Cavite-Laguna-Batangas-Rizal-Quezon) and nearby regions. Business ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 Batangas Port also remained as South Luzon’s preferred gateway for domestic containerized cargoes, imported completely built-up car units as well as passengers with first-half volumes growing by 160 percent, 14 percent and eight percent, respectively. The cargo volume in South Harbor which grew by 10 percent year-on-year as of end-June, also contributed to the latest revenue result. ATI’s costs and expenses climbed six percent to P2.64 billion in the first-half of the year from P2.49 billion a year ago. Labor costs posted a 16 percent uptick to P562 million this year from P487 million last year amid an increase in headcount to support higher volume Read More …

MANILA, Philippines – One of the most important factors in ensuring business continuity and success is choosing the right leaders for the organization. To help multinationals, SME businesses, non-profits, cooperatives, and government organizations in preparing their people in the leadership pipeline, the Center for Global Best Practices is launching a pioneering best practices seminar entitled, “Best Practices in Effective Succession Planning” to be held on Thursday, Sept. 10 at the EDSA Shangri-La Hotel, Mandaluyong City, Philippines. You may view the full details of this seminar and all other upcoming best practices seminars including Families’ Guide to Will-Writing, Trusts, and Inheritance (Sept. 18), How To Structure Your Salaries, Wages, Benefits with the New Tax Exemption Rules (Oct. 13), How To Collect Debt Without A Lawyer (Nov. 13) and many more at www.cgbp.org. For queries, please contact program leader Anna Andaya through email anna@cgbp.org or Manila telephone numbers (02) 556-8968/ 69;  Cebu lines (032) 512-3106/ 07 ; Baguio line (074) 423-5148 or Legazpi line (052) 736-0148. This once-a-year event will feature one of the most respected HR expert practitioners in Asia, Robin Michael L. Velasco.  Until his retirement in March, he was the HR Vice President for six years of the Metro Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC) which is the holding company of the Philippine’s largest power distribution company, nine of the largest hospitals, the largest toll road network and water distribution company. Prior to this, he was the HR Director for Asia in Synovate (now Ipsos which is a global market research Read More …